. Mrs Lungu

By Margaret Mangani   –
EMPOWERMENT women economically boosts both gender equality  and wealth  of nations.
This entails enabling the women to have the capacity to control income and other key economic resources such as land and animals.
In traditional Africa women were involved in the economy since they were defacto managers of income generating  activities on farms as husbands were involved  in non- farm business activities.
Then came the colonial economy which created title deeds making the men sole owners of land, thereby  rendering women economically weak.
The colonial regime also uprooted  men from villages to work in the urban areas  and plantations  like rubber plantations in Congo, cocoa plantations in Ghana and coffee plantations in Kenya among others. Women consequently were overburdened with running homes making  them economically unstable.
Other reasons why women in Africa are not empowered are poverty levels and negative cultural practices. For instance for a married woman to own land or simply have access to a loan facility she needs to have the consent of the spouse.
The most hard hit are rural women due to illiteracy levels compared to their counter- parts in urban set ups.
While the women may so much desire to own land or property or even access a loan facility for the betterment of themselves ,the requirement that there should be a spouse involved hinders their progress.
One wonders if with the changing trends would still demand that a woman engages the involvement of a man all the time for her to develop.
Can’t a woman  decide on her own on what is best for her future without the man being there for her all the time?
Being dependent on the man for important decisions to be made in the African cultural set up is what has relegated most women  to second class citizens.
Therefore, this has  rendered them to remain poor and not being able to own investments to secure their future.
So in case of the spouse dying there arises cases of property grabbing more especially if the title deeds were in the man’s name.
After an out-cry, especially among the women-folk over the stringent conditions attached to the Citizens’ Economic Empowerment Fund, (CEEC) the Government a few years ago transferred the women’s fund to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare.
The move had cheered many women, particularly those in rural areas.T
he CEEC is a loan scheme aimed at empowering people in a bid to reduce poverty and enhance national development.
More than K90 billion had been released out of the K150 billion fund. Projects worth K52 billion had been approved out of a total 160 applications.
However, the main problem has been that people have not been able to access the funds due to poor project proposals.
This is because the larger population in rural areas is illiterate and, as such, unable to draw up bankable proposals, and much less compete with applicants in urban areas.
The other problem is the usual requirement of collateral or security, which not many can afford especially women.
Subsequently, there were calls from civil society organisations and the public at large for a revision of the conditions.
As a way of addressing this issue, the Government in line with its gender policy of empowering women, has decided to transfer the money meant for women empowerment from the CEEC to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services.
About K5 billion was approved to the ministry.
The funds were now administered under the office of the district commissioner.
To access the funds, the women had to form clubs and engage in income-generating activities or self-help community projects.
District women associations have been tasked to identify eligible women clubs in all the 72 districts of Zambia.
But most recently the First Lady Esther Lungu urged the Government to ensure that finance and investment policies are designed in a way that will empower women.
Ms Lungu was concerned that  there were still laws, policies customs, traditions as well as practices that restrict women from accessing credit and loans thereby preventing them from inheriting land, property and housing in Zambia.
Ms Lungu urged the Government to ensure that finance and investment policies are designed in a way that would promote equality in terms of ownership of land, the right to own property and adequate housing.
She made these remarks when she launched the Women’s build event sponsored by Standard chartered Bank in collaboration with Habit for Humanity in Lusaka’s Kamanga Township.
Standard Chartered Bank and Habitat for Humanity through their projects to empower vulnerable women are constructing two houses for Elizabeth Tembo and Hilda Tolomayo of Kamanga Township.
Ms Lungu said there was need to include women in Land resettlement  schemes and in ownership of housing at local government level.
“Government should take additional measures to increase other productive resources to undermine women’s capacity to acquire and retain these resources,” she said.
She also urged stakeholders to support Government’s efforts to do away with customs and traditional that discriminate against women and deny them security of tenure and equal ownership, access to land as well as right to own property.
Ms Lungu commended Standard chartered Bank on the importance it attached towards alleviating poverty and bridging the housing gap, especially for women who were most affected.
Since inception, Habitat for Humanity Zambia has built over 2,995 houses for the vulnerable people.
At the same function Habitat for Humanity chairperson Douglas Katembo appealed to the government to finalise the Land policy which had remained in a draft form for a long time.
Mr Katembo said the Land policy would enhance security tenure for women once implemented.Once this is done then women will have something to smile about.